The song Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers wants played at her funeral
Melbourne-born rockers Amyl and the Sniffers don’t necessarily make music fit for your average funeral. On the contrary, they make raucous noise far more suitable to scream along to in a sun-drenched festival field, surrounded by thousands of others doing exactly the same. Pairing quick and chaotic guitars with vocalist Amy Taylor’s playful Aussie shouts, they have created one of the most exciting and energetic sounds in modern punk rock.
Funerals are often soundtracked by something a little softer than Amyl and the Sniffers’ sonic stylings, by tracks that encompass all of the grief that comes with loss and allow for a moment of reflection on the life of a loved one. But, true to her music’s off-kilter, lively sound, Taylor’s pick for her own wake is far more jubilant and joyous than you might expect.
While speaking with Kerrang, Taylor named ‘Born to Be Alive’ by Patrick Hernandez as the track she’d like to be played at her funeral. “Hopefully I won’t be dying anytime soon,” she prefaced, “but when I do I’d like something funny that makes everyone laugh, like this.” She also suggested that it might irk some attendees as she plays it so often.
Released in the late 1970s, ‘Born to Be Alive’ is a bouncy disco track that pairs Hernandez’ rounded vocals with triumphant trumpets and rhythms that urge you to get up out of your seat and dance. It’s so unbelievably silly and happy that it, ironically, seems like the perfect funeral song – it’s filled to the brim with celebration of life.
“We were born to be alive,” Hernandez repeats throughout the song. He sings of a life lived in the fast lane, refusing to settle down or to justify his choices, in a mantra for living your life to the fullest. As he runs through the street with a suitcase and a guitar in hand, his words contain within them all the freedom and fun of being alive, allowing for the celebration of those moments, even in death.
Taylor’s obsession with the song even extended to an Amyl and the Sniffers cover of the track in 2020. Swapping disco instrumentation for their characteristically raw guitars and thudding percussion, the Aussies made the song their own with a rendition more suited to head-bopping than disco-dancing.
Taylor’s voice embodies the spirit of life in a completely different way to Hernandez’ original, too. The jubilance of her vocals comes from their rawness, from the accompanying “Hey!”s that uphold and embolden her words in her distinctive Aussie accent. As she repeats the idea that it’s good to be alive, swirling noise surrounding her, it’s easy to believe her.
Despite its seeming dissonance with a funeral setting, ‘Born to Be Alive’ is actually the perfect pick. Between Taylor’s personal connection to the track, her aim to annoy her funeral attendees with a song she replayed so much during her life, and the song’s real celebration of everything that it is to breathe and be human, it seems that there might be no better song of choice.
Avoiding melancholy and morbidity, focusing on the jubilance of life, on the joyous memories of a loved one lost, ‘Born to Be Alive’ is a unique selection in the best way.
